You could see it as time invested. For me, it’s something I do in my free time, on an old laptop, for the fun of it. And for the learning aspect of it.

My main system also runs Linux, but I don’t tamper much with it. It just runs. Reliable, predictable, boring. Boring is good for important systems. But that’s not why I run Linux.

Trying a new distros is a 10 minutes endeavor. Tops. 🤷‍♂️ And there’s Ventoy.

Modern? Gnome developers were always like that.

It’s difficult to be disappointed with something that is free.

Actually, one shouldn’t be disappointed with things. Only people can disappoint you.

I was disappointed in the Debian crew when they standardized on systemd when it clearly wasn’t ready yet.

And I was disappointed in the people running some distros that made Wayland the standard when it clearly wasn’t ready yet (a few apps I rely on don’t support it or run poorly on Wayland even now).

Other than that, free software, free choice, and a lot of learning possibilities. You just have to adapt your expectations. Change hardware, change software, change distros, and learn.

All of them.